


Scaredy Cat

by zooeyscigar



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Accidental Cuddling, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-11-24 14:30:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18166415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zooeyscigar/pseuds/zooeyscigar
Summary: It was two in the morning when Flint’s cell phone rang.Of course he was up, staring out the window at the darkness, drinking whisky and regretting most of his life decisions, but still. No one should call at two am.He frowned at the screen when he saw who was calling and seriously considered not picking up, but the lateness of the hour could have meant an emergency, and he wasn’t the kind of neighbor to not be there for someone when they needed help.





	Scaredy Cat

**Author's Note:**

  * For [olincino](https://archiveofourown.org/users/olincino/gifts), [FarahBobbi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FarahBobbi/gifts).



It was two in the morning when Flint’s cell phone rang.

Of course he was up, staring out the window at the darkness, drinking whisky and regretting most of his life decisions, but still. No one should call at two am. 

He frowned at the screen when he saw who was calling and seriously considered not picking up, but the lateness of the hour could have meant an emergency, and he wasn’t the kind of neighbor to not be there for someone when they needed help.

“Yeah?”  
  
“James?”

That was new. Silver never called him by his first name, nor had he ever sounded so hesitant. Both caused Flint’s skin to prickle. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Silver replied, but he was clearly lying. He was even aware that he was lying, which made Flint sigh heavily. 

“Try again. Why are you calling so late?”

“I… are you up? I mean, I didn’t wake you, did I?”

He was hedging. What was he after this time? “No. What do you want, Silver?”

“I was wondering if maybe I could come over?”

Again, it was the hesitance that was the most alarming. Half the time, Silver didn’t ask for things, he just did them, assuming you’d call him out if you didn’t like it. Flint had taken to locking his door even when he was home just to keep Silver from coming right in and making himself at home. 

_It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission_ seemed to be his life’s motto.

And yet, here he was, calling on the phone to ask if he could come over instead of just showing up unannounced like normal. Maybe it was the lateness of the hour. Flint had never hosted him at this time of night. In fact, he’d studiously avoided being alone with Silver this late, or this far in his cups, and if the young man hadn’t sounded so unsure and yet so needy, James would have had the will power to say no on the spot.

Instead, he carefully asked, “And do what?”

“I dunno. Listen to music? Watch something? Play video games? I don’t care.”

“It’s the middle of the night, Silver. Did you drink coffee after dinner or something?”

“You’re gonna be up for another couple hours anyway, come on. I could… use the company.”

“Why? What happened?”

“Can I come over or not?”

“Fine. The door’s open.”

“Thanks. Be there in a few.”

The call ended, and James just sat there, ensconced in the corner of his couch, mildly baffled by how he’d gotten in this situation. 

Why couldn’t Silver do any of those activities in his own home? When had James ever expressed interest in doing any of them with Silver? He didn’t even have a video game console, and Silver knew it.

It didn’t take long to get from one floor of the apartment building to the other, so within two minutes, Silver tapped on the front door as he opened it and called, “Hellooooo?”

“In here.” James hadn’t bothered to get up. He’d been seriously considering falling asleep on the couch, honestly, so why get out of ‘bed’ when it was only Silver?

“I brought snacks…” Silver stepped cautiously into the only well-lit room in the apartment, looking around as if relieved. He was holding an open bag of white cheddar popcorn and two cans of coke. 

“Silver, why are you here?” 

“You said I could come over!” His defensiveness seemed to hold an edge of panic for some reason. 

“Yes, I did. But you  _asked._  Come on, now.” He gave Silver his best disappointed professor look. 

It worked. 

“I didn’t want to be alone in my empty apartment.”

James held back a snort of amusement, but only just. “It’s not empty if you’re in it. And I thought you liked living alone?”

“Only because no one else can handle living with me,” Silver’s voice went suspiciously vibrant, doing that thing where it sounded flippant to hide the truth. “And it’s creepy in there.” He looked over his shoulder as if something had followed him down the stairs. 

“Did you…” Flint couldn’t believe he was about to ask this. “Did you frighten yourself so badly you can’t sleep?”

“I didn’t know Stephen King books were  _so fucking scary!”_ Silver plopped down on the other end of Flint’s couch, spilling a couple kernels of popcorn on his lap. 

He picked them off and ate them with a pout on his adorable face as Flint chuckled. “No one should read those books late at night. I thought everyone knew that.”

“I didn’t! I thought people were exaggerating. I thought…”

“You thought the warnings didn’t apply to you.” Flint spoke with mock censure in his voice. 

Silver looked fake repentant. “Maybe…” 

“Fool,” Flint said dismissively and reached for a clean glass on the nearby drinks cart. He poured Silver some whisky and held it out. 

Tucked deep into the opposite corner of the couch, Silver reached his arm its full length and could just reach the offering. He popped open a can of coke and filled the rest of the glass, then held out the half-empty can to Flint. He wiggled it slightly and made a questioning sound.

Flint shook his head with a faint look of horror. “Caffeine? Seriously?”

“I’m not gonna even try to sleep tonight, are you kidding me?” 

“Well I plan on getting a few hours at least.”

“Not yet, though. What are we watching?” Silver settled himself even further into the plush couch and Flint wondered if it would take a crowbar to get him out of it later. 

He shrugged and tossed the remote onto the cushion between them. “Whatever you like.”

“I need something silly and colorful and the exact opposite of  _Pet Semetary.”_

“Ah. Is that cat giving you trouble?”

“Fucking Christ. It’s so creepy.” Silver shuddered and pulled the throw blanket off the back of the couch to wrap himself in. 

Flint chuckled. “There’s this high school comedy on Netflix that feels like an extended John Hughes film and has Gillian Anderson in it…”

“SOLD.” Silver was already loading Netflix on the TV. “I’ve loved her since The X-files. What’s it called?”

“Sex education,” Flint said. It took him a moment to notice Silver was staring at him, then another moment to hear what he’d just said. “She’s a sex therapist. Her kid is ace and is trying to give sex advice to his peers. It’s funny.”

“Definitely not porn?”

“Definitely not.” Flint said it with finality. Silver raised his eyebrows and selected the show. 

Ten minutes later Silver was stretched out on the couch laughing loudly at high school shenanigans, his feet resting on Flint’s lap. It was surprisingly cozy, being someone’s footrest, especially when the blanket covered both of their legs. 

Forty minutes and another drink later, the first episode’s credits rolled and Silver called for a bathroom break. 

“You go first, though,” he added as Flint dragged himself upright from where he’d draped himself over the overstuffed arm of the couch.

“What? Why?”

“So you can turn on all the lights for me,” Silver said primly as he sat up, the blanket still tucked up to his chin. 

Chuckling, Flint tapped Silver’s knee to get him to move his legs off Flint’s lap. “I’ll check for demon kitties as I go.”

“Don’t joke. I’d have a heart attack if I saw any sort of feline right now.”

“Look in a mirror, scaredy cat.” Flint tossed the words over his shoulder as he stalked out of the room. 

In response, one of his throw pillows whizzed by his shoulder and smacked against the hallway wall. He guffawed all the way to the bathroom. 

~~

By halfway through the next episode it was Actual Late O’clock, and Flint was tipsy enough to be getting truly sleepy. 

They’d started out in approximately the same positions after the bathroom break, Flint’s lap under Silver’s shins this time, but at some point Silver had turned onto his side and scrunched himself into a C, leaving his lower legs propped on Flint’s lap. This meant that that the back of one of Silver’s thighs was against the side of Flint’s. 

The warmth of their touching bodies under the blanket was contributing to Flint’s sleepiness, and despite his better judgment and the soft, mostly sober, professorial voice in the back of his head, Flint had started to list sideways towards Silver’s body. 

He’d started just leaning his elbow on Silver’s haunch, which had been fine for a while, but now he needed to rest his head somewhere and the back of the couch was too low to use it and still comfortably see the screen. (At least that’s what he told himself.)

So he grunted as if annoyed and let himself slowly topple over, wedging himself between Silver’s back and the couch. Silver huffed and adjusted, making enough room so that Flint could both fit behind Silver’s back and rest his head on Silver’s ribcage. They didn’t quite fit, and it couldn’t have been very comfortable for Silver, but he didn’t complain after that first exasperated noise. 

The angle of how Flint’s head was positioned and where Silver’s arm was resting made for a bit of an obstructed view of the TV, requiring a good deal of work to hold his head up in order to see everything, so at some point Flint gave up and resigned himself to just listen and watch the light from the screen play on Silver’s arm and hair. 

A short time later, Silver sighed and murmured, “here,” and rolled onto his back so Flint could rest his head on Silver’s chest, with his arm naturally wrapping around Flint’s shoulder. The position was ten times more comfortable physically, but Flint felt compromised, even a bit exposed like this. 

Because as of  _now,_ this could be construed as cuddling. 

He didn’t want to be cuddling with his annoying neighbor. 

Or, more accurately, he didn’t  _want_  to want it. 

Because of course he’d wanted this for months, but he’d successfully convinced himself he didn’t, until now. 

And  _now,_  God help him, Silver’s hand was playing with the ends of Flint’s hair, near the nape of his neck. 

_Fucking hell._

He’d pretend to doze off, and ignore all of it. There was no other choice.

But five minutes later the episode ended, and Silver yawned and stretched his arms, though not, Flint noticed, any part of him that Flint was lying on. He decided that was an invitation not to move. 

“Bedtime,” he muttered, because he knew he must. 

“What if…” Silver tucked his curls behind his ear, giving himself an unobstructed view of Flint’s head. “What if I didn’t go back to my scary, empty apartment?”

“If you want to stay right here on the couch, be my guest,” Flint mumbled trying to sound as sleepy as he’d felt a little while ago. 

“Thanks,” Silver replied. He paused, his breath held under Flint’s head. Then, soft as an exhale, “What if you stayed right here too?”

Flint picked his head up and balanced the weight of his skull on his chin, precariously perched on Silver’s pec muscle. “What _if?”_

Their faces were perilously close like this, and Flint found he needed to hold his breath as Silver’s eyes softened and his gaze trailed down to Flint’s mouth. 

“Maybe, instead of a nightmare… I’d get a dream come true?”

“God, Silver. That was cheesy as fuck. But I’ll allow it. Just. This. Once.” Flint had inched forward as he spoke but stopped just short of reaching Silver’s mouth, letting the tension between their lips build like an electrical charge. 

Silver lasted all of four seconds before he surged forward and caught Flint’s lower lip between his own, a soft, pleased noise escaping him as one of Flint’s hands groped up to bury itself in his nest of curls. 

When Flint finally broke the kiss to trail his mouth down Silver’s neck and nibble on his collarbone, Silver panted, “I swear I didn’t come over tonight with this outcome in mind. Not consciously. But  _fuck_  I’m glad you - oh God, yes…”

“Shut up, Silver.”

“Yes sir.”

Flint growled in approval as he worked his way down Silver’s delicious chest, and Silver kept quiet - apart from tiny moans here and there - as Flint took him apart, piece by piece. 

For his part, Silver bit his lip, then this hand, to keep from making noise - that is, until he was full on losing it, when Flint tugged the hand from his mouth in time to hear Silver curse violently and scream his release. 

His voice was ragged after, a fact that brought Flint deep satisfaction as he drifted off to sleep on Silver’s love-bitten chest. 

~~

Late the next morning, during a lull at work, John risked a cheeky text:

**Silver:** I’d apologize for inviting myself over last night, but something tells me you didn’t find it an imposition. ;)

To his relief, a response came almost immediately:

**Flint:** Is that your version of a Thank You?  
 **Flint:** You’re welcome.It was my pleasure. 

**Silver:** Soooo I’ve decided I’m not gonna read the book before bed tonight.

**Flint:** :(  
 **Flint:** Actually that’s smart. I’m sure you need the sleep.  
 ****

**Silver:**  True. But maybe you’d wanna come see the movie with me in a couple weeks?  
 ****

**Flint:** I’d love to.  
 ****

**Silver:**  And maybe tomorrow we could watch more of that show? (I was actually paying attention to most of it, and it’s fun.)  
 ****

**Flint:**  Sure, sounds good. (And me too. Glad you like it.)  
 ****

**Silver:**  But. What if you come over to mine? The TV’s at the foot of my bed…  
 ****

**Flint:**  Forethought. I like that in a man.   
 ****

**Silver:**  Thank God there’s at least one thing you like in me. Before last night I wasn’t sure. :P  
 ****

**Flint:**  One of many, I assure you. :*  
 ****

**Silver:**  Good, cause there’s at least one thing of yours I like in me, too. ;)  
 ****

**Flint:**  :P  
 ****

**Silver:**  Yeah, that too.   
 ****

**Flint:**  Christ. Enough, Silver. See you tomorrow.   
 ****

**Silver:** xoxoxoxo  
 ****

**Flint:** Loved “xoxoxoxo”

That simple little heart made John blush the whole rest of the day. 

_…And_ seriously consider scaring the bejesus out of himself with that fucking book again that night, just so he could be James’ scaredy cat once more.

**Author's Note:**

> it all started [here](https://olincino.tumblr.com/post/183541708439/this-book-is-terrifying-i-shouldnt-read-this)
> 
> Thanks to Oli and Farahbobbi for the inspiration.
> 
> I love his fandom so much. <3


End file.
